_ironised terme_: good-fellow so spells
theefe!"

The gentle-humoured FULLER, in his "Church History," felt a
tenderness for the name of _Puritan_, which, after the mad
follies they had played during the Commonwealth, was then held
in abhorrence. He could not venture to laud the good men of
that party, without employing a new term to conceal the odium.
In noticing, under the date of 1563, that the bishops urged
the clergy of their dioceses to press uniformity, &c., he
adds--"Such as refused were branded with the name of
Puritans--a name which in this nation began in this year,
subject to several senses, and various in the acceptions.
_Puritan_ was taken for the opposers of hierarchy and church
service, as resenting of superstition. But the nickname was
quickly improved by profane mouths to abuse pious persons. We
will decline the word to prevent exceptions, which, if
casually slipping from our pen, the reader knoweth that only
_nonconformists_ are intended," lib. ix. p. 76. Fuller,
however, divided them into classes--"the mild and moderate,
and the fierce and fiery." HEYLIN, in his "History of the
Presbyterians," blackens them as so many political devils; and
NEALE, in his "History of the Puritans," blanches them into a
sweet and almond whiteness.

Let us be thankful to these PURITANS for a political lesson.
They began their quarrels on the most indifferent matters.
They raised disturbances about the "Romish Rags," by which
they described the decent surplice as well as the splendid
scarlet chimere[407] thrown over the white linen rochet,
with the square cap worn by the bishops. The scarlet robe,
to please their sullen fancy, was changed into black satin;
but these men soon resolved to deprive the bishops of more
than a scarlet robe. The affected niceties of these
PRECISIANS, dismembering our images, and scratching at our
paintings, disturbed the uniformity of the religious
service. A clergyman in a surplice was turned out of the
church. Some wore square caps, some round, some abhorred all
caps. The communion-table placed in the East was considered
as an idolatrous altar, and was now dragged into the
middle of t